During a drive back to my hometown this past weekend, I took advantage of technology to be transported back in time.
I didn’t literally step inside Doctor Who’s Tardis and emerge in 1983 but I did do something that was almost as good. I listened to a Top 40 countdown hosted by Casey Kasem from October of that year and enjoyed hearing the songs, most of which I quickly recalled.
Admittedly, there were a couple of songs in the upper 30s that I did not remember but for the most part all of the songs were long ago memorized.
Listening to Kasem’s show was something I enjoyed back in my younger days. It was that way for many teens and pre-teens as pop music was the soundtrack to the lives.
The decade of the 80s is appreciated by those who weren’t even alive then, but to fuller appreciate it one really has to have been alive then.
After much encouragement, I finally watched season one of “Stranger Things,” a Netflix television series filmed in nearby Jackson. The show is based in 1983 and I was curious if the look of the show would actually remind someone who vividly remembers that year.
Let it be known you can’t throw a poster with a 1980s movie displayed on it up on a wall and say that it creates an ‘80s atmosphere. It takes more than that in my book. The creators of “Stranger Things,” however, have done a solid job of creating a series set in the 1980s which actually looks like the 1980s. It’s something that not as easy to do as it sounds.
From the fashion (also not as simple as some would think) to the look of the high school and middle school to the homes to the neighborhoods and even smaller things which some might not have noticed, the show (in season one at least) passes the 1980s legitimate test.
The show (I won’t give away too much for those who have not had the chance to watch it) centers on a group of four middle school friends. I was in middle school in 1983 so the show was made in many ways for a nostalgic person such as myself who considers that decade to be his definite formative years.
“Stranger Things” pays tribute to many past television shows and movies. Some the creators admit to and some they don’t, but that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. We are all influenced by something or someone. I have numerous newspaper reporters and columnists whose style I have tried to emulate during my career. Naturally, I am not as good as the original but to pattern yourself after those you consider the best at a certain craft is actually a wise thing to do.
I have yet to begin watching season two of “Stranger Things” but the reviews are just as positive as season one so I look forward to it as well. Once again that step back in time to another era is a full thing to do.
Once I arrived back to my home after my weekend trek, I began working on articles for this week’s paper.
As I looked at the notebook I have used for years, I was reminded that I have had it in my possession since 1987 when a classmate was cleaning out his locker on the last day of the school year and asked me if I wanted it.
The leather notebook was one which was nicely constructed and I thought it would be something worth having, especially if the other option was for it to be tossed in the trash can. I had no way of knowing that decades later I would still have it in my possession.
The binding has held up very well and whatever my former classmate paid for it, the money was well spent. I doubt my one-time classmate even remembers having it.
From music to television shows (even the rare current one worth watching) to a vintage notebook which has gone with me through several moves and job changes, reminders of the 1980s are more frequent than even I realize at times. As Casey says, “Now on with the countdown.”
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Winder resident Chris Bridges is a former editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He welcomes feedback from readers at pcbridgesbridges@gmail.com.

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